A Louisiana 40th Happy Birthday To Gov. Bobby Jindal

Today is Louisiana’s Governor Bobby Jindal’s birthday. He is now 40-years old.

Happy birthday Governor.

It’s hard to believe that roughly fifteen years have passed since Governor Foster picked the 25-year-old Rhodes Scholar to be the youngest Secretary of Louisiana Health and Hospitals.

It’s also difficult to believe that seven years later, the 32-year-old man beat an incredible list of candidates to take on, but only to lose to the feisty Kathleen Babineaux Blanco who only two days ago revealed she has a rare eye cancer. He beat the likes of former Speakers of the House of Representatives, Hunt Downer and John Hainkel, Attorney General Richard Ieyoub, current Chair of the Louisiana Democratic Party—Buddy Leach, former State Senator Randy Ewing and others.

When I first met the then candidate Jindal before his first race for statewide office, I was immediately impressed with his personal warmth and sincerity. I still am. As that gubernatorial campaign continued, I, like many others became amazed at his ability to think and to speak and to convince.

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Today, on his birth date, he is facing the legislative session from hell where his agenda is in shambles, the budget in disarray with less than two weeks before final gavel.

The Governor has grown up since he first came on the scene in the early 1990’s. He has matured a lot during the years of his public life. His temples have touches of gray. His eyes are tempered with time.

Watch Jeff Crouere and Publisher Stephen Sabludowsky discuss the political issues Tonight Friday June 10 on WLAE at 7:30 PM

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Jindal, the candidate, who claimed he was against the use of one-time money, who told the world that he was against raising taxes is now being accused by some as doing just the opposite.

There also seems to be a remarkable disconnect between his infamous speech when he faced the nation after President Obama gave his State of the Union speech post-“stimulus” vote.

At that time, Jindal said, “To solve our current problems, Washington must lead. But the way to lead is not to raise taxes and not to just put more money and power in hands of Washington politicians. The way to lead is by empowering you, the American people. Because we believe that Americans can do anything.”

With the Louisiana House of Representatives wanting to cut the budget well beyond what Governor Jindal has proposed, with Speaker Jim Tucker recently claiming that a Jindal-proposed fee amounted to a tax, with members of the legislature wanting to jump into the total elimination of state income taxes, Jindal is surely and sorely taking hits from his political right and left that question his effectiveness. The process shows that the Governor has indeed weathered his politics with time.

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Young adult-Bobby Jindal has grown up into the older and wiser, Governor Bobby Jindal. He now knows that wild-eye claims to cut government spending have consequences. People will lose jobs, hard-working former government employees will go on unemployment in a market where jobs are incredibly scarce. Jails could be shuttered. Our kids, who are light-years behind others in the industry of education, will get less food for thought as we further cut back on our schools and colleges. Louisiana, which is dead last in a respectable survey comparing U.S. States “state of health” will have few dollars to spread around to heal the sick and to comfort the needy.

On Jindal’s 40th birthday, the Governor must now know that “we believe that Americans can do anything” is a false belief. It takes many days of failures to realize that sometimes believing is not reality but is simply rhetoric.

If Louisiana must “do anything” at all right now, it simply is to do more with less but not to destroy hope and stability.

The boy, who would be governor, is now understanding that there is more than throwing out slogans in leading. To be Governor, one must govern.